


Not Stepping Into the Breach Without You

by hunters_retreat



Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Derek is a jaeger pilot, M/M, Pre-Slash, short fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 04:32:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4773686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hunters_retreat/pseuds/hunters_retreat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This thing between them?  It was fucking poetry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Stepping Into the Breach Without You

Derek stared at the pair in front of him, ignoring the others who had come to watch.  Yeah, Derek was sort of a freak around here.  They whispered behind his back when we walked through the halls and it was all awe and rumor.  He understood.

He was the only Jaegar pilot to come back alone, to finish a fight after his partner had been killed.

The program was on the outs though and they needed pilots, so much the Marshall had come for him.  One last effort, she’d said.  One final blow that would seal the breach forever.  Derek couldn’t say no to that, no matter what it meant.

The pair in front of him were all that currently had his attention.  The Marshall and her son.  The boy genius behind a lot of the tech that had started the Jaegar program.  A fighter himself if the Marshall would just stop coddling the boy.

“Are we done with this charade?” Derek asked the Marshall.

“You think this is some kind of game, pilot?” The Marshall asked.

Not many people could stand up to that stare but Derek didn’t flinch.  “So long as you’re keeping him out of the ring, it apparently is.”  He pointed to her son and it was her turn to flinch.

Her son, John Connor, looked at Derek even as he spoke.  “I can do this.”

“John, we talked about this.”

“No, you talked and I listened,” he turned to look at her then.  “You want to win this war, Sarah?  Then we throw our best into the breach.”

The room seemed to be holding its breath until Marshall Connor finally gave a small nod.  She turned her eyes back to Derek.  Her voice was steady when she spoke but there was murder in her eyes.  “Hope you know what you just signed yourself up for.”

He might have laughed but as soon as John stepped foot in the ring he attacked.  Derek moved on automatic, years of fighting before becoming a Jaeger, then years of scraping a living after he’d lost his partner and never thought to pilot again.

John was intuitive and perfect in form.  Grace in motion.  When he gave a point it was to a street move, the sort of fighting that Derek had learned long and hard but that John hadn’t faced yet.  Derek would teach him, because this thing between them?  It was fucking poetry.

They coulda sold seats and named it the ballet.

When the match was over, John smiled at Derek and underneath the competitive edge, the acknowledgment of the connection, there was also gratitude.  John was a fighter, trained to survive the kaiju, stuck behind a desk because his mother was too overprotective to let him be the fighter he was.

“Now for the hard part,” John said as Derek offered his hand.

The kid took it.  “The neural handshake?  Not as complicated as they make it sound.  You either fit or you don’t.”

John shook his head.  “Convincing her that it wasn’t a fluke and I really do need to get into that Jaeger with you.”

Derek turned to look at Sarah Connor, back up and shoulders squared as she walked out the door.  Derek couldn’t help but smile at the kid.  “I don’t give a rat’s ass what she says.  They send anyone else in and I’ll step out.  I’m not stepping into the breach without you.”

John took a deep breath and nodded.  “I’ll have your back.”

“We’ll have each other’s,” Derek assured him. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [](http://daria234.livejournal.com/profile)[daria234](http://daria234.livejournal.com/) though not quite the prompt you gave me. But when you mentioned John and Derek and Pacific Rim this is where my mind went. Heaven help me, I want to add to it but I'm not sure yet. I haven't felt like making a verse in years but this is starting to feel a little like that to me :P Hope you enjoy this little snippet!


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